Colossians 2:13

Colossians 2:13

And while you all are dead in the trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you all alive together with Him after forgiving all of us the trespasses. 

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

I think that there are three really important states in this verse to which we should pay attention.  The first is a circumstantial participle: while being dead.  The reality is that this is our general status.  We are born into the status of death.  We are not saved by our nature.  We are not even good by our nature!  We are dead to our trespasses without Christ.

Where do you see this lived out in your life?  What evidence does your life have of its trespasses as your human nature is exposed?

Second Thought:

The second state to which we need to pay attention is another circumstantial participle: after forgiving.  God forgives.  God knows that we are dead in our trespasses and yet He still forgives.  In fact, if we look at the timing of these first two circumstances we actually get the teaching that the forgiveness occurs at some point while we are still dead in our trespasses.  In other words, forgiveness comes before any life comes our way.  This shouldn’t surprise us when we think deeply about it, but it does serve to heighten God’s act in salvation.  God acts first.  He sent us Christ.  He forgives us while we are dead and don’t deserve it.  He initiates action prior to us being worthy for it.

How does this understanding affect your view of God?  Do you think our gratitude towards God is easy or difficult to actually live out as we should?  Why do you answer this way?

Third Thought:

Now we get to the third state.  This state is the main verb of the sentence: God made us alive together with Him.  When we put this verb together with the circumstial participles that came before it we get a clear picture.  While we were dead, God forgave us.  After forgiving us, God made us alive.  This inherently means that while we were dead, God made us alive.  But also look at the tense of the verb.  God made us alive.  That is a past tense verb.  The action is done.  The state of us being alive is already granted.  Our salvation is assured.  We are not waiting to die, we are actually already alive in Christ!  This is a really neat continuation of Jesus’ promise that those who believe in Him should never die.  We might die physically, but we are already alive spiritually.

How are you alive spiritually?  Where in your life can you see this playing out?

Passage for Tomorrow: Colossians 2:14-15